The goal of the Master Key Experience is Self-Reliance for our members. To not rely on a self-proclaimed guru or guru’s, but on one’s self. To always seek truth from within and to discover your bliss by taking your hero’s journey to your authentic self.

This was my first year as a guide. I have been gifted a tribe that I now have relationships with beyond this course. I am grateful for all the valuable lessons I have learned as a “newbie” guide that will assist me to be better and refine my guide skills for the next class of MKMMA.

Gratitude to my Master Guide, Derek Atchley, for giving me so many learning opportunities once we launched in September.

Thank you to Mark, Davene, and Dayna, for all you do tirelessly so more scholarships can be awarded each year.

Thank you to all the friends I invited in to MKMMA, who said yes to their calling to their bliss and massive congratulations to those who have completed the Master Key Experience.

Congratulations to my fellow guides and all the members of the 2016 Master Key Experience.

I have really enjoyed having Deb Schnitzer in my 2016 tribe and following her journey through the Master Keys has just filled my heart with song.

Deb and I recently connected by phone and I will never forget something she said in that conversation that still rings clear in my mind. Now understand that one of Deb’s SMART goals is Liberty. What she said in that phone conversation was, “it’s like people are throwing money at my feet.” Drop the mic. That is music to a guide’s ears.

Deb has been consistent every step of the way in the Master Key Experience. She has blogged weekly, completed all her assignments, and remained committed to her daily exercises from the word GO!

What Deb is experiencing in her personal life is exactly what we expect when you take your own hero’s journey to your authentic self. Her new mental blueprint is becoming her reality.

My virtue this week in the Franklin Makeover is “Enthusiasm” and I am going to share the perspective of one of our members on this topic. But before I do, let’s recap a few items from this week.

There is nothing more liberating than putting the Law of Least Resistance/Least Effort into practice in your life. There are three steps to making this work:

Acceptance – You must practice 100% acceptance in all things. No matter how good or more importantly how bad things go, you accept it as it is, as it was meant to be. Declare it all perfect!

Responsibility – Respond differently. We can’t choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to them.

Defenselessness – This is the key to unlock the door for effortlessness. STOP defending your point of view.

When you put this law into practice in your daily life, BAM…it’s like the Mental Diet on steroids.

Finding your unique gifts – how do you do this? In your three days of silence. Have you done it yet? I have not. But, I feel a really strong calling to get it done. Why? I feel like there is so much waiting to be revealed as soon as I make the time for it to happen.

And now here is Deb Schnitzer’s take on the virtue, Enthusiasm. Enjoy! Click Here

This is a week we give our members a break before the final three webinars. Normally during a webinar break they have assigned movies to watch. I love movies, don’t you? Especially the movie list we provide.

This week I really want to share a blog post a friend of mine wrote recently. Jimmie is a good friend, husband and all around good guy to everyone he meets. He has served his country. Thank you for your service, Jimmie. He lives, works and plays full out. He goes after his goals with passion and conviction and I greatly admire his tenacity. Jimmie and his beautiful wife, Lori, are both members of the class of 2016 Master Key Experience. When you can take this journey simultaneously with your spouse, amazing things happen as a couple.

Enjoy his blog post, but also take the time to poke around his website because he always delivers value.

Last week I dangled a really big carrot in front of you on how to use guilt, anger, fear, hurt feelings, and unworthiness as tools to expand your comfort zone. Since my virtue for this week is IMAGINATION, imagine a world where we could create a massive shift in our negative emotions to leverage them for positive outcome in our lives and show the world how to do the same. Wow! How grand would life be for those suffering by how these emotions encapsulate them in their comfort zone to no longer just survive, to stop playing small in life and THRIVE. We have the ability to do that with sharing the Master Key Experience and our pay it forward scholarship program.

It’s time to step away from the masquerade ball, take off the mask and let go of all these feelings that do not serve you and step into your true authentic self.

Our comfort zone will control us until we learn to control it. How do we learn to control it? We control our comfort zone by learning to control our world within. We begin by leveraging the Seven Laws of the Mind. Law of Dual Thought – I can attach any feeling I desire to any thought, my choice.

Let’s look at hurt feelings as an example. Hurt feelings are really self-pity. It’s a choice to feel hurt. It may not feel like a choice, but you do choose how to react. Own your choice. We can leverage the Law of Substitution – I can instantly replace a negative thought with a positive one. Rather than feeling self-pity, choose to feel passion. Do you feel that shift in your body when you let go of self-pity and choose passion instead. Use this energy to propel you out of your comfort zone. When you choose self-pity over passion, you are giving away your power.

How about anger? Letting go of anger is easier said than done. When you’re angry there is a massive energy surge. Be the observer of this surge. Is anger a reason to stop? Channel that energy in a positive way. Substitute productivity for the bully pulpit, besides there’s no emotional hangover. Isn’t living well the best revenge?!!! Leverage the Law of Forgiveness – I forgive everyone along with the Law of Relaxation – My relaxed, calm state of mind helps me access infinite intelligence.

Let’s look at guilt. Most of society lives in a state of guilt most of their life. We are masters of self-persecution. I’m no exception. The truth is we all make mistakes. It’s ok, we are created to be imperfect with free will and we don’t always make the best decisions. It’s ok.

Guilt is really anger turned inward or self-directed anger. Anger as we just learned above carries massive energy and can be channeled for change on all levels – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Use guilt to advance your DMP. You know what to do, so do it daily as you are directed with these course exercises.

Honesty is the hand maiden of change and when we couple honesty with this energy we can change our beliefs instead of berating ourselves over and over again over the past.

Now let’s look at fear. Wouldn’t you agree that when you’re in a fear state of mind, there is intense focus. Your heart races, cortisol level in your body goes through the roof, maybe panic/anxiety, etc. This state comes about because we project outcomes and perceive danger. Think back, how many times was there real danger…for me rarely ever. I created that feeling inside for something that never actually happened. Oh my goodness!

Now take that same intense focus, only this time direct it toward your DMP. We know the metaphor of the magnifying glass is focus and fear has the ability to convert thoughts into action. With intense concentration and focus, you will automatically and instantly begin to improve.

Lastly is unworthiness. I have challenged myself for a lot of my adult life with unworthiness because I was the child born into our family as a menopause baby, if you will. But, I was also the child who was originally diagnosed as a tumor in my mother’s belly and she was operated on to remove. Thankfully, I was not removed and my mother gave birth months later. Growing up I would hear, “I have three children and a tumor, and this is my tumor”. It always got a laugh and usually a response of, “she’s a beautiful tumor”. My Mom loved to laugh and make others laugh right along with her. Only this was at my expense. My truth is I AM a child of God who makes no mistakes and I AM worthy.

The truth for all of us is that we are worthy of anything we want, but not worthy of everything we want. Don’t labor over definitions and focus (magnifying glass) on giving yourself permission to go from constrictive to expansive feelings. Think like a child. You are worthy. Leverage your DMP that you created to speak to you like a friend speaks to you and consistency of reading it keeps you on track.

The statement, “what would the person I intend to become do next?”, warns us if we are getting off track and instantly puts us back on the path to our Dharma.

Remember all of these emotions create energy and choose to leverage this energy toward creating your new reality, your authentic self.

I find it interesting that my virtue for the week in the Franklin Makeover is “Taking Initiative” and it falls right in line with the introduction of how to shift negative emotions of Guilt, Anger, Hurt Feelings, Fear, and Unworthiness into tools for expanding your comfort zone.

Why is the comfort zone so comfortable? Why do people stay there rather than pursuing their goals and dreams? It’s easy and requires no effort to stay with what’s familiar.

Next week we will go deeper into how to leverage these negative emotions as tools to move you out of your comfort zone and into goal achievement.

What’s important in this process is that it’s ok to stumble. The hard mental labor we are doing in this course to imprint a new mental blueprint in the subconscious mind takes time and consistent effort with the daily exercises. And even then, the old mental blueprint will continue it’s attempts to take up residency in your mind and keep you stuck where you don’t want to be. i.e. the comfort zone.

As I was experiencing my own backsliding a bit, I felt compelled to look back on my week 21 blog post from a year ago. Interesting to note I was stumbling at this same point in the course then too.

This is COURAGE week for me in the Franklin Makeover. I have always looked at the word COURAGE as the absence of fear.

Let me take you back to September 2015 when I was invited by my friend, Flo Bradley, to take a look at this course called the Master Key Mastermind Alliance. I remember that as I watched the launch videos for this course, my resistance was whispering in my ear, “you don’t have time for this”. However, there was one single sentence that MarkJ spoke that piqued my curiosity. I remember him saying, that you will not only overcome your fears, you will eliminate them. Wow, how grand would life be with no fear. Fear was holding me back at the time and I really felt paralyzed from taking action toward achieving my goals.

I mastered the daily requirements for this course and around weeks 13/14, I experienced a massive shift in my thinking and consequently, my actions. Imagine what it would feel like to move toward rather than retreat from your authentic self. Stay true to these daily habits and exercises and you will experience your own shift in your hero’s journey to your authentic self.

I am forever grateful to Flo Bradley for having the COURAGE to invite me into the Master Key Experience.

Since this time, what I’m learning is that sustained COURAGE is really 80% specialized knowledge. When I break this down for me, it’s really about learning, applying and mastering the specialized knowledge that I require to build my confidence, which translates into action in the pursuit of my goals.

As MarkJ illustrated in this week’s video, be the Hedgehog not the Fox. The Hedgehog has and focuses on specialized knowledge where the Fox lacks specialized knowledge and knows a lot about a lot with no plan. No plan, no progress.

COURAGE is making progress which means spending 80% of my scheduled time in the A & B activities that drive my business forward with 50% on the A activity and 30% on the B activity. Progress, not perfection. Here we go!

It’s week #19 in the Master Key Experience and week #6 in the Franklin Makeover. I chose Persistence as my virtue for this week. This means I ranked Persistence as #6 in the list of 13 virtues that I require and seek improvement in my life.

Now I’ve been very successful in several businesses over the past 20 years, however, there are areas I wish to excel in that my persistence seems to wane at times.

As the week began, I always seek insight in my daily Sit or meditation time. All that kept coming up for me was this unpleasant feeling of defeat and judgment on myself that I’m not where I should be in my business. I am so grateful for the residual income I have created and receive every Monday without fail, but my goal when I started was to reach the level of income I enjoy in real estate sales so if I choose to step out of real estate then I have that option.

I decided to persist in my Sit seeking insight on my persistence virtue when something told me to look up. And there they were. They have been adorning my office shelf for years yet I had forgotten about them. In 2013, I was awarded two awards simultaneously for Persistence. The persistence award reads, “The race goes not always to the swift but to those who keep running. You have powers you never dreamed of. You are capable of doing things you never thought possible. There are no limitations on what you can do.” The 2nd award is titled “Whatever It Takes, Above and Beyond”. Isn’t it interesting how the Universe has a way of reminding us of what we are capable of.

Wow! How had I forgotten this and more importantly how have I stepped away from my persisting toward my goal? I find myself questioning, “is this my true bliss?” I really don’t doubt that it is. What I believe is that when I achieved goals in the past, I was operating out of pure ignorance on fire with unbridled enthusiasm and we know that enthusiasm will move our subconscious mind further and faster toward our goal achievement.

I also know that in the past I was not leveraging DEFT, OATS and Framed Firelighters in my business building activities. Therefore, I was extremely out of balance in my personal and business life. I experienced burnout and exhaustion and backed away. I can not back away, I must persist.

Reading Og Mandino three times a day is so helpful. Og wrote in The Greatest Salesman in the World, “Nor I allow yesterday’s success to lull me into today’s complacency, for this is the great foundation of failure.” Guilty!

What keeps coming up for me is focus on the skills because the skills build confidence and confidence creates action. Action that is sustainable for a lifetime with balance in all areas of my life. Og says, “Never I forget that many have attained great wealth and success with only one sales talk, delivered with excellence.” BAM!!!

When the Universe answers your call for insight, it flows from everywhere. I read daily from a book titled, Saving Grace by C. John Miller. There was a message this week that goes like this:

If you don’t stick to things, if you don’t prepare, if you don’t persevere through difficulty, you’ll always be frustrated because deep down what you really want is your own way. You want the success, but not the blood and mud that goes with it. Whose will are you doing? There is a Father who loves you so much that he punished his own sinless Son for you. He welcomes you as righteous just as his Son is righteous. Give him your will.

There is nothing sexy about the word DISCIPLINE. Just the thought of discipline elicits thoughts of pain, drudgery and difficulty. The most common new year’s resolution is weight loss. For most it requires developing discipline in the areas of working out and making conscious decisions about what you decide to consume for nutrition. So why do we seek more of it? We seek change, but it doesn’t always come easy.

Discipline is required to get me to my goals. If I want to finish that half marathon race, then I require discipline in following a running schedule. If I want to generate a 5-figure a month residual income check equal to my real estate income, then I require discipline in growing my team. If I want to compete in figure competitions, I require discipline in doing the figure workouts, posing and following the food plan required of me to compete in this category.

Once you have mastered the art of discipline, do what is required without even thinking about it. It just happens without fail. The question becomes how bad do you want it. How enthusiastic are you about achieving your goal.

What’s really interesting in having this virtue so high on my list of virtues to improve on is that I often get compliments from people who say to me, “you’re so disciplined!” What they don’t know is that you have to move through dis-ease in order to experience ease. So it’s true, I have conquered discipline in some areas of my life, but in other areas, it still eludes me.

One thing that I find that helped me to appreciate and feel grateful for how far I’ve come in this virtue is making a list of all that I am disciplined in first. Here’s my list and I encourage you to make your own. Lead with gratitude and more will flow!

Daily quiet time

Daily gratitude journal (list of 10 Monday through Saturday and 20 on Sunday)

Required reading 3x/day

Daily Prayer

Daily Meditation

Food Log

Exercise

7-8 hours of rest each night

100+ ounces of water consumption daily

Weekly check-in with my fitness coach with photos and food log

Blog weekly

Making your own list allows you to be kind to yourself in your pursuit of Discipline.

My virtue this week is “well-organized”. Remember we are covering the virtues in the Franklin Makeover based on the order in which we require the most work first.

I can’t tell you how many times I have taken organization classes in hopes of finding the missing piece to catapult my efforts further faster. I believe dis-organization is a form of orchestrated chaos leaving overwhelm in its path. But why though? A form of resistance maybe?

This week has moved at a super crazy pace as my real estate business was full and profitable. I found that the week was slipping away yet I had spent little time focusing on my virtue of “well-organized”. I kept glancing at my desk top and the piles of paper and feeling a bit of a failure at being well-organized. Does one’s desktop really define well-organized?

In Master Key 18:33 it says “This week concentrate upon your power to create; seek insight, perception; try to find a logical basis for the faith which is in you.

During my next sit I decided to seek insight on well-organized. I was reminded of two beautiful examples of “well-organized” that I had encountered during the week. Oh my how I almost missed this. Never underestimate the power of a Sit.

There is no thought in my mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power and organizes a huge instrumentality of means. ~Emerson

Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is the journey so few are willing to take, the journey to one’s authentic self. Life is full of conditioning that we often have no clue that we are even cut off from following our bliss in life. I love the Master Key Mastermind Alliance because this course is all about busting away the cement (conditioning) in our lives and discovering our true self and taking the hero’s journey and discovering and following your bliss.

Why do members choose to quit MKMMA? They view this journey as danger rather than an adventure. Change can be scary, unfamiliar, and much of society not just our members choose to stay with what is comfortable and familiar.

The dragon is the voice that holds us back that says, “you can never do that”, and so the cement or life time of conditioning keeps us stuck and separated from our authentic self. The hero is the voice that says, “yes I am doing that” and seeks out change and follows their bliss. Choose to take your hero’s journey!